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Sports Briefs: Jordan's son kicks up heels over his shoes
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Published: October 23, 2009
Updated: 10/23/2009 12:15 am
ORLANDO, Fla. -- A fight over the shoes that Michael Jordan's son, Marcus, will wear at Central Florida could cost the school as much as $3 million.
Marcus Jordan, a freshman guard, is refusing to wear shoes made by adidas, the brand that the university has a contract with for all sports. He says he will wear only his father's Nike Air Jordan shoes because they hold special meaning for his family.
The problem is that UCF is in the final year of a $3 million, six-year contract with adidas that requires coaches and athletes to use the company's apparel and equipment.
UCF said in a statement yesterday that adidas was aware of the situation during contract renewal discussions.
The university says it is working with adidas "in determining how this unique set of circumstances will work for both parties."
More basketball
■ The Charlotte Bobcats waived guards Dontell Jefferson and Antonio Anderson yesterday to get their roster to 14. Jefferson played in seven preseason games, averaging 2.3 points, 1.1 assists and 0.9 rebounds. He initially joined the team March 11, on two 10-day contracts, then signed March 31 for the rest. He averaged 4.8 points, 2.0 rebounds and 1.5 assists last season.
Anderson, signed as a free agent in September, averaged 3.4 points, 1.8 assists and 1.4 rebounds in five preseason games.
The Bobcats will play the Memphis Grizzlies at 10:30 a.m. today in Charlotte and will open the regular season Oct. 28 on the road against the Boston Celtics.
■ The Minnesota Timberwolves are calling surgery to repair forward Kevin Love's broken left hand a success. Love had the surgery Tuesday and the team said yesterday that everything went well. Dr. Andrew Weiland put three screws into Love's hand, which was broken during a preseason game Oct. 16 against Chicago. Love is expected to miss six to eight weeks while recovering.
■ The Guilford men's team, an NCAA Division III semifinalist last season, is ranked No. 3 in the D3hoops.com preseason poll. Washington University of St. Louis, the two-time national champion, is No. 1 with 25 first-place votes. John Carroll is No. 2.
■ Dayton, a second-round NCAA Tournament team last season, finished No. 1 in the Atlantic 10's preseason coaches and media poll for men's teams, ahead of Xavier, Richmond and LaSalle. UNC Charlotte ended up in the middle of the 14-team league, at No. 7.
Golf
■ Australian Nick O'Hern, brandishing a hot putter on a warm afternoon, cruised to a career-low 63 and the first-round lead in the Frys.com Open yesterday at Scottsdale, Ariz. O'Hern, who finished at 7 under, putted only nine times while posting a 28 on the par-35 back nine at Grayhawk Golf Club. Eight of O'Hern's nine birdies came in that stretch.
Bob Heintz and Heath Slocum were one shot back at 64, and D.A. Points, Rory Sabbatini, Greg Owen and Rickie Fowler shot 65s to finish two shots off the lead. With little wind on an 82-degree day in the desert, scores fell as players attacked Grayhawk's Raptor Course.
■ The course that is scheduled to be the site of the U.S. Amateur in 2011 and is under consideration for a U.S. Open is being sold to a Milwaukee business executive who plans to keep the course open to the public. Andy Ziegler, co-founder and CEO of Artisan Partners Limited, has agreed to buy Erin Hills from Robert Lang. The deal should close today.
Ziegler said he sees the deal as a chance to give back to golf in Wisconsin. Lang bought the property 10 years ago and will stay on as a consultant.
The golf course opened in 2006. It is in the Kettle Moraine area northwest of Milwaukee and was named America's best new course by Golf Magazine. It hopes to land the U.S. Open in 2017.
Soccer
■ Mexico will play eight exhibitions in the run-up to next year's World Cup in South Africa, including three in the United States.
Nestor de la Torre, the director of national teams, said yesterday that Mexico-based players would begin training in Mexico City on April 12. Europe-based players will be worked in as their seasons end. Mexico's opponents will be set after the World Cup draw Dec. 4.
■ Diego Maradona, the coach of Argentina's soccer team, said he won't apologize for a profanity-filled tirade on live TV, an incident that could bring him a five-game suspension and a fine equivalent to nearly $20,000.
Maradona was defiant Wednesday in a television interview that aired just hours after FIFA said it had opened a disciplinary investigation into his conduct after a World Cup qualifying win last week. He's been under pressure during an erratic qualifying campaign, and he directed the profanity at his critics.
■ American defender Oguchi Onyewu will be sidelined for six months after surgery to repair a ruptured patellar tendon in his left knee, a layoff that could jeopardize his appearance in next year's World Cup.
After Onyewu was injured in last week's World Cup qualifier against Costa Rica, the U.S. Soccer Federation originally projected his recovery at three to four months. The federation issued a new estimate of six months yesterday, a day after national team physician Dr. Bert Mandelbaum operated on Onyewu for one hour in Los Angeles. That gives Onyewu, 27, little time to regain his form ahead of the World Cup, which opens June 11 in South Africa.
Miscellaneous
■ More than 2,000 urine and blood samples will be tested during the Vancouver Winter Olympics as part of a $16.4-million effort to catch drug cheats. A state-of-the-art doping lab for the Games, scheduled Feb. 12-28, is a replica of the World Anti-Doping Agency-accredited lab in Montreal. The 14,530-square-feet facility cost $8.9 million, with another $7.5 million for operations.
Besides standard testing, anti-doping officials will conduct random and target testing based on intelligence. Thirty technicians will start working at the lab around the clock in January, and pre-competition testing will begin Feb. 4.
■ Tennis authorities are looking into a WTA Tour match involving U.S. Open finalist Caroline Wozniacki that sparked bettors to pile money on her opponent, who was on the verge of losing in straight sets.
She retired from the first-round match at the Luxembourg Open with a hamstring injury Wednesday while leading Anne Kremer of Luxembourg 7-5, 5-0. Wozniacki's father, Piotr, told his daughter at 3-0 in the second set to retire before winning because her injury would prevent her from playing in the next round. His comments, spoken in his native Polish, were picked up by microphones and heard by viewers watching the match on the Internet. That led to a surge in online bets for Kremer to win.
"We're just looking into everything that happened in this match," a WTA spokesman said, adding that he believed the information would go to the Tennis Integrity Unit. "I would think that would be the way it would go. They are aware of it."
■ Japanese teenager Ryo Ishikawa will play in next month's HSBC Champions golf tournament in a field that includes Tiger Woods. Ishikawa, 18, was scheduled to play in a smaller tournament on the Japanese tour but received permission from his sponsors to play in the $7 million HSBC tournament, scheduled Nov. 5-8 at Sheshan International Golf Club in Shanghai.
■ Lance Armstrong will compete in next year's Tour of California, which will feature route changes and be moved from February to May to avoid the rainy season. Levi Leipheimer, Dave Zabriskie and George Hincapie also said they will compete in the race, now scheduled May 16-23.
■ Thomas Enqvist is the new captain for Sweden's Davis Cup team. He replaces Mats Wilander, who retired this week. Enqvist played for Sweden between 1995 and 2004, winning 15 of 26 matches, and was a member of Davis Cup winning teams in 1997 and ‘98 and also played in the 1996 final.
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